# Access Requests with Email

This guide will explain how to set up Teleport to send Just-in-Time Access Request notifications to users via email. Since all organizations use email for at least some of their communications, Teleport's email plugin makes it straightforward to integrate Access Requests into your existing workflows, letting you implement security best practices without compromising productivity.

![The email Access Request plugin](/docs/assets/images/email-0bdacb62ae97ed64025ebfc8969ed941.png)

This integration is hosted on Teleport Enterprise (Cloud)

In Teleport Enterprise Cloud, Teleport manages the Email integration for you, and you can enroll the Email integration from the Teleport Web UI.

Visit the Teleport Web UI and on the left sidebar, click **Add New** followed by **Integration**:

![Enroll an Access Request plugin](/docs/assets/images/enroll-ee64e35054da594e264c55422bf39c7b.png)

On the "Select Integration Type" menu, click the tile for your integration. You will see a page with instructions to set up the integration, as well as a form that you can use to configure the integration.

![Enroll email plugin](/docs/assets/images/enroll-email-6beead028f20992ae88471dcda40261a.png)

Configure and connect email integration by providing the following configuration values:

**`Sender`**: Configures the sender address.

**`Fallback Recipient`**: Configures the default recipient for Access Request notifications.

**`Email Service`**: Selects the desired email service. Note: only `Mailgun` is supported for Teleport Enterprise (Cloud).

![Configure Mailgun integration](/docs/assets/images/configure-mailgun-13efa6ceba35fea29c389dc70f316146.png)

Complete Mailgun integration by providing the following Mailgun API configuration values:

**`Domain`**: Configures the Mailgun sending domain.

**`Mailgun Private Key`**: Configures the Mailgun API key.

## How it works

The Teleport email plugin authenticates to a third-party SMTP service as well as the Teleport Auth Service, and listens for audit events from the Teleport Auth Service related to Access Requests. When a user creates an Access Request, the plugin sends an email to reviewers of the request, including a link that each reviewer can follow in order to review the request in the Teleport Web UI. You can configure the reviewers the plugin will notify based on the role targeted by the Access Request.

## Prerequisites

- A running Teleport Enterprise cluster. If you want to get started with Teleport, [sign up](https://goteleport.com/signup) for a free trial or [set up a demo environment](https://goteleport.com/docs/get-started/deploy-community.md).

- The `tctl` and `tsh` clients.

  Installing `tctl` and `tsh` clients

  1. Determine the version of your Teleport cluster. The `tctl` and `tsh` clients must be at most one major version behind your Teleport cluster version. Send a GET request to the Proxy Service at `/v1/webapi/find` and use a JSON query tool to obtain your cluster version. Replace teleport.example.com:443 with the web address of your Teleport Proxy Service:

     ```
     $ TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443
     $ TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl -s https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/find | jq -r '.server_version')"
     ```

  2. Follow the instructions for your platform to install `tctl` and `tsh` clients:

     **Mac**

     Download the signed macOS .pkg installer for Teleport, which includes the `tctl` and `tsh` clients:

     ```
     $ curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-${TELEPORT_VERSION?}.pkg
     ```

     In Finder double-click the `pkg` file to begin installation.

     ---

     DANGER

     Using Homebrew to install Teleport is not supported. The Teleport package in Homebrew is not maintained by Teleport and we can't guarantee its reliability or security.

     ---

     **Windows - Powershell**

     ```
     $ curl.exe -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v${TELEPORT_VERSION?}-windows-amd64-bin.zip
     Unzip the archive and move the `tctl` and `tsh` clients to your %PATH%
     NOTE: Do not place the `tctl` and `tsh` clients in the System32 directory, as this can cause issues when using WinSCP.
     Use %SystemRoot% (C:\Windows) or %USERPROFILE% (C:\Users\<username>) instead.
     ```

     **Linux**

     All of the Teleport binaries in Linux installations include the `tctl` and `tsh` clients. For more options (including RPM/DEB packages and downloads for i386/ARM/ARM64) see our [installation page](https://goteleport.com/docs/installation.md).

     ```
     $ curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v${TELEPORT_VERSION?}-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
     $ tar -xzf teleport-v${TELEPORT_VERSION?}-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
     $ cd teleport
     $ sudo ./install
     Teleport binaries have been copied to /usr/local/bin
     ```

**Recommended:** Configure Machine & Workload Identity to provide short-lived Teleport credentials to the plugin. Before following this guide, follow a Machine & Workload Identity [deployment guide](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/deployment.md) to run the `tbot` binary on your infrastructure.

- Access to an SMTP service. The Teleport email plugin supports either Mailgun or a generic SMTP service that authenticates via username and password.
- Either a Linux host or Kubernetes cluster where you will run the email plugin.

---

PROTECTING YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT

The Teleport plugin needs to use a username and password to authenticate to your SMTP service. To mitigate the risk of these credentials being leaked, you should set up a dedicated email account for the Teleport plugin and rotate the password regularly.

---

- To check that you can connect to your Teleport cluster, sign in with `tsh login`, then verify that you can run `tctl` commands using your current credentials. For example, run the following command, assigning teleport.example.com to the domain name of the Teleport Proxy Service in your cluster and email\@example.com to your Teleport username:
  ```
  $ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=email@example.com
  $ tctl status
  Cluster  teleport.example.com
  Version  19.0.0-dev
  CA pin   sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678
  ```
  If you can connect to the cluster and run the `tctl status` command, you can use your current credentials to run subsequent `tctl` commands from your workstation. If you host your own Teleport cluster, you can also run `tctl` commands on the computer that hosts the Teleport Auth Service for full permissions.

## Step 1/7. Define RBAC resources

Before you set up the email plugin, you will need to enable Role Access Requests in your Teleport cluster.

For the purpose of this guide, we will define an `editor-requester` role, which can request the built-in `editor` role, and an `editor-reviewer` role that can review requests for the `editor` role.

Create a file called `editor-request-rbac.yaml` with the following content:

```
kind: role
version: v7
metadata:
  name: editor-reviewer
spec:
  allow:
    review_requests:
      roles: ['editor']
---
kind: role
version: v7
metadata:
  name: editor-requester
spec:
  allow:
    request:
      roles: ['editor']
      thresholds:
        - approve: 1
          deny: 1

```

Create the roles you defined:

```
$ tctl create -f editor-request-rbac.yaml
role 'editor-reviewer' has been created
role 'editor-requester' has been created
```

---

TIP

You can also create and edit roles using the Web UI. Go to **Access -> Roles** and click **Create New Role** or pick an existing role to edit.

---

Allow yourself to review requests by users with the `editor-requester` role by assigning yourself the `editor-reviewer` role.

Assign the `editor-reviewer` role to your Teleport user by running the appropriate commands for your authentication provider:

**Local User**

1. Retrieve your local user's roles as a comma-separated list:

   ```
   $ ROLES=$(tsh status -f json | jq -r '.active.roles | join(",")')
   ```

2. Edit your local user to add the new role:

   ```
   $ tctl users update $(tsh status -f json | jq -r '.active.username') \
     --set-roles "${ROLES?},editor-reviewer"
   ```

3. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

**GitHub**

1. Open your `github` authentication connector in a text editor:

   ```
   $ tctl edit github/github
   ```

2. Edit the `github` connector, adding `editor-reviewer` to the `teams_to_roles` section.

   The team you should map to this role depends on how you have designed your organization's role-based access controls (RBAC). However, the team must include your user account and should be the smallest team possible within your organization.

   Here is an example:

   ```
     teams_to_roles:
       - organization: octocats
         team: admins
         roles:
           - access
   +       - editor-reviewer

   ```

3. Apply your changes by saving and closing the file in your editor.

4. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

**SAML**

1. Retrieve your `saml` configuration resource:

   ```
   $ tctl get --with-secrets saml/mysaml > saml.yaml
   ```

   Note that the `--with-secrets` flag adds the value of `spec.signing_key_pair.private_key` to the `saml.yaml` file. Because this key contains a sensitive value, you should remove the saml.yaml file immediately after updating the resource.

2. Edit `saml.yaml`, adding `editor-reviewer` to the `attributes_to_roles` section.

   The attribute you should map to this role depends on how you have designed your organization's role-based access controls (RBAC). However, the group must include your user account and should be the smallest group possible within your organization.

   Here is an example:

   ```
     attributes_to_roles:
       - name: "groups"
         value: "my-group"
         roles:
           - access
   +       - editor-reviewer

   ```

3. Apply your changes:

   ```
   $ tctl create -f saml.yaml
   ```

4. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

**OIDC**

1. Retrieve your `oidc` configuration resource:

   ```
   $ tctl get oidc/myoidc --with-secrets > oidc.yaml
   ```

   Note that the `--with-secrets` flag adds the value of `spec.signing_key_pair.private_key` to the `oidc.yaml` file. Because this key contains a sensitive value, you should remove the oidc.yaml file immediately after updating the resource.

2. Edit `oidc.yaml`, adding `editor-reviewer` to the `claims_to_roles` section.

   The claim you should map to this role depends on how you have designed your organization's role-based access controls (RBAC). However, the group must include your user account and should be the smallest group possible within your organization.

   Here is an example:

   ```
     claims_to_roles:
       - name: "groups"
         value: "my-group"
         roles:
           - access
   +       - editor-reviewer

   ```

3. Apply your changes:

   ```
   $ tctl create -f oidc.yaml
   ```

4. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

Create a user called `myuser` who has the `editor-requester` role. This user cannot edit your cluster configuration unless they request the `editor` role:

```
$ tctl users add myuser --roles=editor-requester
```

`tctl` will print an invitation URL to your terminal. Visit the URL and log in as `myuser` for the first time, registering credentials as configured for your Teleport cluster.

Later in this guide, you will have `myuser` request the `editor` role so you can review the request using the Teleport plugin.

## Step 2/7. Define a Teleport email plugin user

The required permissions for the plugin are configured in the preset `access-plugin` role. To generate credentials for the plugin, define either a Machine ID bot user or a regular Teleport user.

**Machine & Workload Identity**

If you haven't set up a Machine ID bot yet, refer to the [deployment guide](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/deployment.md) to run the `tbot` binary on your infrastructure.

Next, allow the Machine ID bot to generate credentials for the `access-plugin` role. You can do this using `tctl`, replacing `my-bot` with the name of your bot:

```
$ tctl bots update my-bot --add-roles access-plugin
```

**Long-lived identity files**

As with all Teleport users, the Teleport Auth Service authenticates the `access-plugin` user by issuing short-lived TLS credentials. In this case, we will need to request the credentials manually by *impersonating* the `access-plugin` role and user.

If you are running a self-hosted Teleport Enterprise deployment and are using `tctl` from the Auth Service host, you will already have impersonation privileges.

To grant your user impersonation privileges for `access-plugin`, define a user named `access-plugin` and a role named `access-plugin-impersonator` by adding the following YAML document into a file called `access-plugin-impersonator.yaml`:

```
kind: user
metadata:
  name: access-plugin
spec:
  roles: ['access-plugin']
version: v2
---
kind: role
version: v7
metadata:
  name: access-plugin-impersonator
spec:
  allow:
    impersonate:
      roles:
      - access-plugin
      users:
      - access-plugin

```

Create the user and role:

```
$ tctl create -f access-plugin-impersonator.yaml
user "access-plugin" has been created
role "access-plugin-impersonator" has been created
```

---

TIP

You can also create and edit roles using the Web UI. Go to **Access -> Roles** and click **Create New Role** or pick an existing role to edit.

---

Assign this role to the user you plan to use to generate credentials for the `access-plugin` role and user:

Assign the `access-plugin-impersonator` role to your Teleport user by running the appropriate commands for your authentication provider:

**Local User**

1. Retrieve your local user's roles as a comma-separated list:

   ```
   $ ROLES=$(tsh status -f json | jq -r '.active.roles | join(",")')
   ```

2. Edit your local user to add the new role:

   ```
   $ tctl users update $(tsh status -f json | jq -r '.active.username') \
     --set-roles "${ROLES?},access-plugin-impersonator"
   ```

3. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

**GitHub**

1. Open your `github` authentication connector in a text editor:

   ```
   $ tctl edit github/github
   ```

2. Edit the `github` connector, adding `access-plugin-impersonator` to the `teams_to_roles` section.

   The team you should map to this role depends on how you have designed your organization's role-based access controls (RBAC). However, the team must include your user account and should be the smallest team possible within your organization.

   Here is an example:

   ```
     teams_to_roles:
       - organization: octocats
         team: admins
         roles:
           - access
   +       - access-plugin-impersonator

   ```

3. Apply your changes by saving and closing the file in your editor.

4. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

**SAML**

1. Retrieve your `saml` configuration resource:

   ```
   $ tctl get --with-secrets saml/mysaml > saml.yaml
   ```

   Note that the `--with-secrets` flag adds the value of `spec.signing_key_pair.private_key` to the `saml.yaml` file. Because this key contains a sensitive value, you should remove the saml.yaml file immediately after updating the resource.

2. Edit `saml.yaml`, adding `access-plugin-impersonator` to the `attributes_to_roles` section.

   The attribute you should map to this role depends on how you have designed your organization's role-based access controls (RBAC). However, the group must include your user account and should be the smallest group possible within your organization.

   Here is an example:

   ```
     attributes_to_roles:
       - name: "groups"
         value: "my-group"
         roles:
           - access
   +       - access-plugin-impersonator

   ```

3. Apply your changes:

   ```
   $ tctl create -f saml.yaml
   ```

4. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

**OIDC**

1. Retrieve your `oidc` configuration resource:

   ```
   $ tctl get oidc/myoidc --with-secrets > oidc.yaml
   ```

   Note that the `--with-secrets` flag adds the value of `spec.signing_key_pair.private_key` to the `oidc.yaml` file. Because this key contains a sensitive value, you should remove the oidc.yaml file immediately after updating the resource.

2. Edit `oidc.yaml`, adding `access-plugin-impersonator` to the `claims_to_roles` section.

   The claim you should map to this role depends on how you have designed your organization's role-based access controls (RBAC). However, the group must include your user account and should be the smallest group possible within your organization.

   Here is an example:

   ```
     claims_to_roles:
       - name: "groups"
         value: "my-group"
         roles:
           - access
   +       - access-plugin-impersonator

   ```

3. Apply your changes:

   ```
   $ tctl create -f oidc.yaml
   ```

4. Sign out of the Teleport cluster and sign in again to assume the new role.

You will now be able to generate signed certificates for the `access-plugin` role and user.

## Step 3/7. Export the access plugin identity

Give the plugin access to a Teleport identity file. We recommend using Machine ID for this in order to produce short-lived identity files that are less dangerous if exfiltrated, though in demo deployments, you can generate longer-lived identity files with `tctl`:

**Machine & Workload Identity**

Configure `tbot` with an output that will produce the credentials needed by the plugin. As the plugin will be accessing the Teleport API, the correct output type to use is `identity`.

For this guide, the `directory` destination will be used. This will write these credentials to a specified directory on disk. Ensure that this directory can be written to by the Linux user that `tbot` runs as, and that it can be read by the Linux user that the plugin will run as.

Modify your `tbot` configuration to add an `identity` output.

If running `tbot` on a Linux server, use the `directory` output to write identity files to the `/opt/machine-id` directory:

```
services:
- type: identity
  destination:
    type: directory
    # For this guide, /opt/machine-id is used as the destination directory.
    # You may wish to customize this. Multiple outputs cannot share the same
    # destination.
    path: /opt/machine-id

```

If running `tbot` on Kubernetes, write the identity file to Kubernetes secret instead:

```
services:
  - type: identity
    destination:
      type: kubernetes_secret
      name: teleport-plugin-email-identity

```

If operating `tbot` as a background service, restart it. If running `tbot` in one-shot mode, execute it now.

You should now see an `identity` file under `/opt/machine-id` or a Kubernetes secret named `teleport-plugin-email-identity`. This contains the private key and signed certificates needed by the plugin to authenticate with the Teleport Auth Service.

**Long-lived identity files**

Like all Teleport users, `access-plugin` needs signed credentials in order to connect to your Teleport cluster. You will use the `tctl auth sign` command to request these credentials.

The following `tctl auth sign` command impersonates the `access-plugin` user, generates signed credentials, and writes an identity file to the local directory:

```
$ tctl auth sign --user=access-plugin --out=identity
```

The plugin connects to the Teleport Auth Service's gRPC endpoint over TLS.

The identity file, `identity`, includes both TLS and SSH credentials. The plugin uses the SSH credentials to connect to the Proxy Service, which establishes a reverse tunnel connection to the Auth Service. The plugin uses this reverse tunnel, along with your TLS credentials, to connect to the Auth Service's gRPC endpoint.

Certificate Lifetime

By default, `tctl auth sign` produces certificates with a relatively short lifetime. For production deployments, we suggest using [Machine & Workload Identity](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/introduction.md) to programmatically issue and renew certificates for your plugin. See our Machine & Workload Identity [getting started guide](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/getting-started.md) to learn more.

Note that you cannot issue certificates that are valid longer than your existing credentials. For example, to issue certificates with a 1000-hour TTL, you must be logged in with a session that is valid for at least 1000 hours. This means your user must have a role allowing a `max_session_ttl` of at least 1000 hours (60000 minutes), and you must specify a `--ttl` when logging in:

```
$ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --ttl=60060
```

If you are running the plugin on a Linux server, create a data directory to hold certificate files for the plugin:

```
$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/teleport/plugins/api-credentials
$ sudo mv identity /var/lib/teleport/plugins/api-credentials
```

If you are running the plugin on Kubernetes, create a Kubernetes secret that contains the Teleport identity file:

```
$ kubectl -n teleport create secret generic --from-file=identity teleport-plugin-email-identity
```

Once the Teleport credentials expire, you will need to renew them by running the `tctl auth sign` command again.

## Step 4/7. Install the Teleport email plugin

In this step, you'll install the Teleport email plugin on a host that has network access to your SMTP server. This host can be any system capable of reaching both your Teleport cluster and the SMTP server used for sending emails.

Using a local SMTP server?

If you are using a local SMTP server to test the plugin, you should install the plugin on your local machine to ensure the plugin can connect to the SMTP server and perform any necessary DNS lookups to send email.

Your Teleport cluster does *not* need to perform DNS lookups for your plugin because the plugin dials out to the Teleport Proxy Service or Teleport Auth Service.

**Download**

Access Request Plugins are available as `amd64` and `arm64` Linux binaries for downloading. Replace `ARCH` with your required version.

```
$ curl -L -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-access-email-v13.3.7-linux-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
$ tar -xzf teleport-access-email-v13.3.7-linux-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
$ cd teleport-access-email
$ sudo ./install
```

Make sure the binary is installed:

```
$ teleport-email version
teleport-email v13.3.7 git:teleport-email-v13.3.7-fffffffff go1.25.9
```

**Docker Image**

```
$ docker pull public.ecr.aws/gravitational/teleport-plugin-email:13.3.7
```

Make sure the plugin is installed by running the following command:

```
$ docker run public.ecr.aws/gravitational/teleport-plugin-email:13.3.7 version
teleport-email v13.3.7 1.25.9
```

For a list of available tags, visit [Amazon ECR Public Gallery](https://gallery.ecr.aws/gravitational/teleport-plugin-email).

**From Source**

To install from source you need `git` and `go` installed. If you do not have Go installed, visit the Go [downloads page](https://go.dev/dl/).

```
$ git clone https://github.com/gravitational/teleport -b branch/v19
$ cd teleport/integrations/access/email
$ git checkout v13.3.7
$ make build/teleport-email
```

Move the `teleport-email` binary into your PATH.

Make sure the binary is installed:

```
$ teleport-email version
teleport-email v13.3.7 git:teleport-email-v13.3.7-fffffffff go1.25.9
```

**Helm Chart**

Allow Helm to install charts that are hosted in the Teleport Helm repository:

```
$ helm repo add teleport https://charts.releases.teleport.dev
```

Update the cache of charts from the remote repository:

```
$ helm repo update
```

## Step 5/7. Configure the plugin

At this point, you have generated credentials that the email plugin will use to connect to Teleport. You will now configure the plugin to use these credentials to receive Access Request notifications from Teleport and email them to your chosen recipients.

### Create a config file

**Executable or Docker**

The Teleport email plugin uses a configuration file in TOML format. Generate a boilerplate configuration by running the following command:

```
$ teleport-email configure | sudo tee /etc/teleport-email.toml
```

**Helm Chart**

The email plugin Helm Chart uses a YAML values file to configure the plugin. On your local workstation, create a file called `teleport-email-helm.yaml` based on the following example:

```
teleport:
  address: ""              # e.g., example.teleport.sh:443 
  identitySecretName: ""   # e.g., teleport-plugin-email-identity
  identitySecretPath: ""   # e.g., identity

mailgun:
  enabled: false
  domain: ""
  privateKey: ""
  privateKeyFromSecret: ""
  privateKeySecretPath: "" # e.g., mailgunPrivateKey

smtp:
  enabled: false
  host: ""
  port: 587
  username: ""
  password: ""
  passwordFromSecret: ""
  passwordSecretPath: ""   # e.g., smtpPassword
  starttlsPolicy: ""       # e.g., mandatory

delivery:
  sender: ""
  recipients: []

roleToRecipients: {}

secretVolumeName: ""       # e.g., password-file


```

### Edit the configuration file

Edit the configuration file for your environment. We will show you how to set each value below.

### `[teleport]`

**Executable**

**`addr`**: Include the hostname and HTTPS port of your Teleport Proxy Service or Teleport Enterprise Cloud account (e.g., `teleport.example.com:443` or `mytenant.teleport.sh:443`).

**`identity`**: Fill this in with the path to the identity file you exported earlier.

**`client_key`**, **`client_crt`**, **`root_cas`**: Comment these out, since we are not using them in this configuration.

**Helm Chart**

**`address`**: Include the hostname and HTTPS port of your Teleport Proxy Service or Teleport Enterprise Cloud tenant (e.g., `teleport.example.com:443` or `mytenant.teleport.sh:443`).

**`identitySecretName`**: Fill in the `identitySecretName` field with the name of the Kubernetes secret you created earlier.

**`identitySecretPath`**: Fill in the `identitySecretPath` field with the path of the identity file within the Kubernetes secret. If you have followed the instructions above, this will be `identity`.

If you are providing credentials to the plugin using a `tbot` binary that runs on a Linux server, make sure the value of `identity` is the same as the path of the identity file you configured `tbot` to generate, `/opt/machine-id/identity`.

Configure the plugin to periodically reload the identity file, ensuring that it does not attempt to connect to the Teleport Auth Service with expired credentials.

Add the following to the `teleport` section of the configuration:

```
refresh_identity = true

```

### `[mailgun]` or `[smtp]`

Provide the credentials for your SMTP service depending on whether you are using Mailgun or SMTP service.

**Mailgun**

If you are deploying the email plugin on a Linux host:

1. In the `mailgun` section, assign `domain` to the domain name and subdomain of your Mailgun account.
2. Assign `mailgun.private_key` to your Mailgun private key.

If you are deploying the email plugin on Kubernetes:

1. Write your Mailgun private key to a local file called `mailgun-private-key`.
2. Create a Kubernetes secret from the file:

```
$ kubectl -n teleport create secret generic mailgun-private-key --from-file=mailgun-private-key
```

1. Assign `mailgun.privateKeyFromSecret` to `mailgun-private-key`.

**Generic SMTP Service**

Assign `host` to the fully qualified domain name of your SMTP service, omitting the URL scheme and port. (If you're using a local SMTP server for testing, use `"localhost"` for `host`.) Assign `port` to the port of your SMTP service.

If you are running the email plugin on a Linux host, fill in `username` and `password`.

---

TIP

You can also save your password to a separate file and assign `password_file` to the file's path. The plugin reads the file and uses the file's content as the password.

---

If you are deploying the email plugin on Kubernetes:

1. Write your SMTP service's password a local file called `smtp-password.txt`.
2. Create a Kubernetes secret from the file:

```
$ kubectl -n teleport create secret generic smtp-password --from-file=smtp-password
```

1. Assign `smtp.passwordFromSecret` to `smtp-password`.

Disabling TLS for testing

If you are testing the email plugin against a trusted internal SMTP server where you would rather not use TLS—e.g., a local SMTP server on your development machine—you can assign the `starttls_policy` setting to `disabled` (always disable TLS) or `opportunistic` (disable TLS if the server does not advertise the `STARTTLS` extension). The default is to always enforce TLS, and you should leave this setting unassigned unless you know what you are doing and understand the risks.

For Kubernetes deployments, `starttls_policy` is called `smtp.starttlsPolicy` in the Helm values file for the email plugin.

### `[delivery]`

Assign `sender` to the email address from which you would like the Teleport plugin to send messages.

### `[role_to_recipients]`

The `role_to_recipients` map (`roleToRecipients` for Helm users) configures the recipients that the email plugin will notify when a user requests access to a specific role. When the plugin receives an Access Request from the Auth Service, it will look up the role being requested and identify the recipients to notify.

**Executable or Docker**

Here is an example of a `role_to_recipients` map. Each value can be a single string or an array of strings:

```
[role_to_recipients]
"*" = ["security@example.com", "executive-team@example.com"]
"dev" = "eng@example.com"
"dba" = "mallory@example.com"

```

**Helm Chart**

In the Helm chart, the `role_to_recipients` field is called `roleToRecipients` and uses the following format, where keys are strings and values are arrays of strings:

```
roleToRecipients:
  "*": ["security@example.com", "executive-team@example.com"]
  "dev": ["eng@example.com"]
  "dba": ["mallory@example.com"]

```

In the `role_to_recipients` map, each key is the name of a Teleport role. Each value configures the recipients the plugin will email when it receives an Access Request for that role. Each string must be an email address.

The `role_to_recipients` map must also include an entry for `"*"`, which the plugin looks up if no other entry matches a given role name. In the example above, requests for roles aside from `dev` and `dba` will notify `security@example.com` and `executive-team@example.com`.

Suggested reviewers

Users can suggest reviewers when they create an Access Request, e.g.,:

```
$ tsh request create --roles=dbadmin --reviewers=alice@example.com,ivan@example.com
```

If an Access Request includes suggested reviewers, the email plugin will add these to the list of recipients to notify. If a suggested reviewer is an email address, the plugin will send a message to that recipient in addition to those configured in `role_to_recipients`.

Configure the email plugin to notify you when a user requests the `editor` role by adding the following to your `role_to_recipients` config, replacing `YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS` with the appropriate address:

**Executable or Docker**

```
[role_to_recipients]
"*" = "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS"
"editor" = "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS"

```

**Helm Chart**

```
roleToRecipients:
  "*": "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS"
  "editor": "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS"

```

Configuring recipients without role mapping

If you do not plan to use role-to-recipient mapping, you can configure the Teleport email plugin to notify a static list of recipients for every Access Request event by using the `delivery.recipients` field:

**Executable or Docker**

```
[delivery]
recipients = ["eng@exmaple.com", "dev@example.com"]

```

**Helm Chart**

```
delivery:
  recipients: ["eng@exmaple.com", "dev@example.com"]

```

If you use `delivery.recipients`, you must remove the `role_to_recipients` configuration section. Behind the scenes, `delivery.recipients` assigns the recipient list to a `role_to_recipients` mapping under the wildcard value `"*"`.

You configuration should resemble the following:

**Executable or Docker**

```
# /etc/teleport-email.toml
[teleport]
addr = "example.com:443"
identity = "/var/lib/teleport/plugins/email/identity"
refresh_identity = true

[mailgun]
domain = "sandbox123abc.mailgun.org" 
private_key = "xoxb-fakekey62b0eac53565a38c8cc0316f6"

# As an alternative, you can use SMTP server credentials:
#
# [smtp]
# host = "smtp.gmail.com"
# port = 587
# username = "username@gmail.com"
# password = ""
# password_file = "/var/lib/teleport/plugins/email/smtp_password"
# starttls_policy = "mandatory"

[delivery]
sender = "noreply@example.com" 

[role_to_recipients]
"*" = "eng@example.com"
"editor" = ["admin@example.com", "execs@example.com"]

[log]
output = "stderr" # Logger output. Could be "stdout", "stderr" or "/var/lib/teleport/email.log"
severity = "INFO" # Logger severity. Could be "INFO", "ERROR", "DEBUG" or "WARN".

```

**Helm Chart**

```
# teleport-email-helm.yaml
teleport:
  address: "teleport.example.com:443"
  identitySecretName: teleport-plugin-email-identity
  identitySecretPath: identity

mailgun:
  domain: "sandbox123abc.mailgun.org" 
  privateKeyFromSecret: "mailgun-private-key"

# As an alternative, you can use SMTP server credentials:
#
# smtp:
#   host: "smtp.gmail.com"
#   port: 587
#   username: "username@gmail.com"
#   passwordFromSecret: "smtp-password"
#   starttls_policy = "mandatory"

delivery:
  sender: "noreply@example.com" 

roleToRecipients:
  "*": "eng@example.com"
  "editor": ["admin@example.com", "execs@example.com"]

```

## Step 6/7. Test the email plugin

After finishing your configuration, you can now run the plugin and test your email-based Access Request flow:

**Executable**

```
$ teleport-email start
```

If everything works as expected, the log output should look like this:

```
$ teleport-email start
INFO   Starting Teleport Access Email Plugin (): email/app.go:80
INFO   Plugin is ready email/app.go:101
```

**Docker**

Start the plugin:

```
$ docker run -v <path-to-config>:/etc/teleport-email.toml public.ecr.aws/gravitational/teleport-plugin-email:19.0.0-dev start
```

**Helm Chart**

Install the plugin:

```
$ helm upgrade --install teleport-plugin-email teleport/teleport-plugin-email --values teleport-email-helm.yaml
```

To inspect the plugin's logs, use the following command:

```
$ kubectl logs deploy/teleport-plugin-email
```

Debug logs can be enabled by setting `log.severity` to `DEBUG` in `teleport-email-helm.yaml` and executing the `helm upgrade ...` command above again. Then you can restart the plugin with the following command:

```
$ kubectl rollout restart deployment teleport-plugin-email
```

### Create an Access Request

**As an Admin**

A Teleport admin can create an Access Request for another user with `tctl`:

```
$ tctl request create myuser --roles=editor
```

**As a User**

Users can use `tsh` to create an Access Request and log in with approved roles:

```
$ tsh request create --roles=editor
Seeking request approval... (id: 8f77d2d1-2bbf-4031-a300-58926237a807)
```

**From the Web UI**

Users can request access using the Web UI by visiting "Identity", clicking "Access Requests" and then "New Request":

![Creating an Access Request using the Web UI](/docs/assets/images/request-access-be784784ab25db7e651c87817044f082.png)

The recipients you configured earlier should receive notifications of the request by email.

### Resolve the request

Once you receive an Access Request message, click the link to visit Teleport and approve or deny the request:

![Reviewing a request](/docs/assets/images/review-request-51dc06eae57234cbbfea4e13f0879884.png)

Reviewing from the command line

You can also review an Access Request from the command line:

**As an Admin**

```
Replace REQUEST_ID with the id of the request
$ tctl request approve REQUEST_ID
$ tctl request deny REQUEST_ID
```

**As a User**

```
Replace REQUEST_ID with the id of the request
$ tsh request review --approve REQUEST_ID
$ tsh request review --deny REQUEST_ID
```

## Step 7/7. Set up systemd

This section is only relevant if you are running the Teleport email plugin on a Linux host.

In production, we recommend starting the Teleport plugin daemon via an init system like systemd. Here's the recommended Teleport plugin service unit file for systemd:

```
[Unit]
Description=Teleport Email Plugin
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/teleport-email start --config=/etc/teleport-email.toml
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
PIDFile=/run/teleport-email.pid

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


```

Save this as `teleport-email.service` in either `/usr/lib/systemd/system/` or another [unit file load path](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html#unit%20file%20load%20path) supported by systemd.

Enable and start the plugin:

```
$ sudo systemctl enable teleport-email
$ sudo systemctl start teleport-email
```

## Troubleshooting

Access Request plugins need permissions to list and read any Teleport resource types included in a request. This is because, when the plugin receives a resource request, it queries the Teleport Auth Service API for data about the requested resources.

If you receive an error message similar to the following, the Teleport roles for the Access Request plugin's identity do not have permissions to perform one or more operations against the Teleport API. In the example below, the Access Request plugin needs `list` and `read` permissions on the `user_group` resource:

```
ERRO   Failed to process request error:[
ERROR REPORT:
Original Error: *interceptors.RemoteError access denied to perform action "list" on "user_group", access denied to perform action "read" on "user_group"

```

Make sure the Teleport roles for the Access Request plugin's identity include permissions to list requested resources. To resolve the error above, for example, you could grant the following role to the Access Request plugin's identity:

```
kind: role
version: v7
metadata:
  name: read-user-groups
spec:
  allow:
    rules:
      - resources: [user_group]
        verbs: [list, read]

```